More Students Pass Regents, But.........

(http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/18/education/18school.html?scp=26&sq=achievement%20gap&st=cse)
In this article called More Students Passing Regents, but Achievement Gap Persists , statistics show that more students are receiving there regents diploma’s but still the achievement gap remains’ at large. State education commissioner, Richard P. Mills said "More students are achieving higher standards each year; the number of graduates is staying constant, even with higher standards." "There are too many students who arrive at high school not prepared to do high school work, too many students who arrive at high school reading, writing and doing math at the elementary level. We have to correct the problem in the earlier grades." With elementary and middle schools continuing to do there class after school programs, students should seem to do better and receive more help to hurdle over this gap.

Are regents affecting our students? Giving them too much to handle? What about the S.A.T